Why Engineering? We Asked Our Experts.
February 19, 2019It is National Engineers Week and Capitol is celebrating! We’re looking forward to continuing a fun week of building, making, and learning with our on-campus engineering clubs and organizations. Today the Robotics team is busting out bots. Come down to the student center to see them in action and maybe even try your “hand” at a game of Jenga using a robotic arm.
Today we are featuring two members of our engineering faculty. We wanted to hear how they got into engineering and why. Are you thinking about becoming and engineer and looking for advice? Read on.
Dr. Nayef Abu-Ageel, Dean of Academics, Chair of Electrical Engineering:
Why did you decide to become an engineer? What drove you towards this field?
Dr. Abu-Ageel: I knew in high school that I didn’t want to go to a medical school, and engineering was the other strong option. My high school friend and I decided to go into electrical engineering together.
In our freshman year, we both enrolled in the same Fortran programming class. I enjoyed the class and did very well in it, which encouraged me to continue my study in electrical engineering. My friend, however, did not do well in the programming class, which prompted him to change his major. He eventually graduated as an architectural engineer.
What accomplishment are you the most proud of that you never would have gotten to without your engineering degree?
Dr. Abu-Ageel: Engineering enabled me to work for a Massachusetts startup on the development of a tunable laser for telecommunication applications. That startup was acquired for $1.4B by Nortel Networks in 2000. Later, I established my own startup and was able to explore technology entrepreneurship for a number of years.
What one piece of advice would you give to someone without an engineering background who is interested in becoming an engineer?
Dr. Abu-Ageel: If you work hard, you will be able to become a successful engineer and it's worth it. You get to work on innovations that can improve people's lives.
Dr. Garima Bajwa, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Club Mentor:
Why did you decide to become an Engineer? What drove you towards that field?
Dr. Bajwa: My parents being professors too, I used to see them do experiments in the lab. My mom is a food scientist, and my dad is a veterinary scientist. I used to find it cool. You know, adding so much sugar, how does it change? You know, adding this acid to a food product, and my mom used to study the outcome.
This might also apply; we had a car that would always give us trouble. And of course we were not rich, right? So you try fixing it on your own. I used to open the hood of the car with my dad and always go running, you know, I’d leave my homework to see what he was doing. I was very interested in seeing the radiator of the car. It would always be in trouble. And from there I understood what was the purpose of the radiator, how it related to the engine and the cooling effect and how there were such complex things in the car which make it up. It’s not just the four wheels which make it drive. The sense of getting into the complexity of things and what it means to be an engineer I think stemmed from there. When my brother then went into engineering, I followed him.
What accomplishment are you the most proud of that you never would have gotten to without your engineering degree?
Dr. Bajwa: Whatever I am today is because of my degree. I would not have been a professor. The experience of being called, professor Bajwa, doctor Bajwa in the very first semester I was here always reminded me of my parents. My proudest moment might be when I won the three minute thesis competition. I won the university level, where all the universities compete with each other, and then I went into the nationals where you see these different people from different engineering sciences all trying to show what they have achieved in their Ph.D. It was a breathtaking experience.
That eventually led me to win the best doctoral student in my department. Now I see that those achievements are left behind. Now what I see as my achievement is my students achieving.
What one piece of advice would you give to someone without an engineering background who might be interested in becoming an engineer?
Dr. Bajwa: It’s a very tough question, but everybody knows what to do, how to do. The why is what not everybody is thinking about. The engineering field is not cookie cutter; there are a lot of different types of engineering. But like, if you are interested in robotics, what part of robotics? You can be a good programmer and still be involved in creating the robot. You can be a good electrical engineer and help to assemble and come up with awesome parts for the robot. You can be a cyber expert and still be part of a robotics team. On the plate there’s everything for everyone, in every field. You have to pick apart what you like. Why you want to be an engineer should come from how you want to contribute that relates to your interest.
Interested in engineering? Check out our programs here!
Check out our Engineers Week from last year here:
Celebrating National Engineering Week – Featuring SWE
The Future of Rocket Science: What’s on the Astronautical Engineering Horizon in 2018
Student Engineer Spotlight: Featuring Annie Yang